Cursed
by Uchiha B
Summary: Because she helped two injured animals back to health, Kagome is dragged into the Sohmas' cursed lives. But can she really help them with their dark past when she has to deal with her own demons? Furuba/Inuyasha xover Kagome/?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Pairing: Not exactly sure yet (for Kagome)…, Tohru/Kyo

I know that I said I wouldn't post any more stories, but I just couldn't resist! I am completely enthralled with the Furuba manga right now and there are very few Inuyasha/Fruits Basket xovers and even fewer decent ones…so here is my attempt…

Note: In the Fruits Basket manga, it seems to use 'kun' more than 'chan,' even for the girls, so I am going to go along with that so you don't have to correct me in a review saying that 'kun' is for boys only

* * *

"Okay, everyone this is Higurashi Kagome. Treat her with respect." The teacher of the class introduced, writing the name of the new student on the chalkboard. A few whispers ran along the classroom but other than that, no one said a word.

Kagome stood in at the front of the classroom, trying her hardest to give a smile but obviously failing miserably. She knew that she probably looked horrible, or at least really exhausted, but didn't really care, how could she possibly care about _anything _anymore? Her life was in complete shambles and it just seemed no one care, she had no one left…

"Hello, I hope we can be friends." Kagome said quietly and made it sound very unbelievable; she didn't want any friends, none at all. She would deal with this on her own. She bowed low as she introduced herself, standing up straight afterwards. She rubbed her grey-blue eyes, mostly grey due to her depression. The rubbing only seemed to make worse the dark purple bruise-like markings underneath her eyes that now seemed to be a permanent feature on her otherwise flawless face.

"Alright Higurashi, go sit by Sohma." The teacher of the class ordered, pointing in the direction of a rather good-looking male with odd coloured hair. Kagome raised a brow at him, slightly amused by the rather vacant and indifferent expression on his handsome face.

She slowly walked towards the empty desk near him, not bothering to listen to the whispers of the students, most of them from girls who looked like they were jealous that she got seated where she did. Kagome ignored them, not caring in the least that they were most likely saying nasty things about her, she didn't care at all. She sat at the desk, slightly relieved that she was seated near the window so she could stare out it at the scenery. She just didn't give a damn anymore, not about anything; she could drop out of school for all she cared. She decided to attend high school though; her attendance being a condition to be able to keep the shrine despite the fact that she wasn't legally an adult, or if she didn't, then the government would take away her home away from her, the only thing she had left…

Kagome slowly leaned her head against her arms, lazily narrowing her grey-blue eyes as she felt something _unusual _in the air. She glanced around the room slowly, ignoring how her head pounded slightly, being the warning signals she usually received when a youkai was around. _'Where's it coming from?' _She slowly thought, ignoring the teacher's babble about whatever, trying to focus and pinpoint the somewhat youki feeling. Her blue-grey eyes suddenly met indifferent grey, effectively startling her.

Kagome looked away from the white and black haired boy quickly, not liking how her heart seemed to be pounding painfully in her chest. She sighed, feeling Sohma's eyes slip off her as if they never were on her person in the first place. _'That's strange, the feeling almost disappeared.' _Kagome thought, not really interested anymore. She rested her head on her arms once more, staying that way until the bell rang.

Kagome slowly gathered her stuff, walking out of the room and not noticing a cute blond boy jumping on the indifferent boy excitedly, their eyes both following her movements unconsciously.

* * *

"There's a new student in your class? A transfer this late in the year? How exciting!" Honda Tohru said in an excited tone, her jade green eyes sparkling in naïve happiness. They all sat upon under a tree, the leafy green branches providing shade from the hot sun. Tohru smiled and giggled a bit as Momiji smiled widely, almost latching onto her waist before remembering that he was in a public place. He didn't want to transform into his cursed form, a cute yellow bunny-rabbit.

"Yeah! And she's real pretty too!" Momiji said, just as excited as Tohru when she heard that there was a transfer student. The bunny suddenly blinked, looking slightly thoughtful. "Though she looked really sad though, didn't she?" Momiji directed the last of his question to Hatsuharu, who looked from his lunch with a blank and vague look.

He also looked thoughtful, nodding to Momiji's question. "Yeah, she did look rather…depressed." He answered, his grey eyes turning to Tohru as she gasped in concern.

"Oh, do you think we should talk to her? It can be lonely when you start at a new school." Tohru said with concern, smiling as Uo-chan and Hana-chan suddenly latched themselves on her, nuzzling and saying things like 'how selfless she was.'

"Who really gives a damn? Just leave the girl to her own business." Kyo lazily cracked open a crimson eye, not wanting to get into another's business. Besides that, he just really didn't care about this new student problems anyway. Tohru didn't need to be dragged into it either.

"Could you not be a little more sensitive, you stupid cat?" Yuki said, sighing as his cousin's hopelessness. There were times that he just couldn't believe that he was actually related to the stupid cat… oh wait, make that all the time…

"So what's this girl's name?" Uo asked lazily, leaning back against a tree and smoothing out her long ankle-length blue skirt. She brushed back a long blond bang from her eyes, watching Momiji for an answer. Maybe the girl was worth looking into if Tohru was interested.

"Higurashi Kagome! Isn't that a pretty name?" Momiji giggled slightly, remembering how pretty the girl was in person. A pretty name for a pretty girl, though her eyes were probably the most unusual feature about her. It was rare to find such eyes out of the Juunishi, though Tohru's innocent leafy-green eyes were pretty too.

"Yes! It is a pretty name!" Tohru exclaimed, standing up from her sitting position while everyone looked at her curiously. "I'm going to find Higurashi-kun and ask her to sit with us!" She explained, walking off as her friends nodded.

She looked around, searching for the description that Momiji told her. Long black hair and blue-grey eyes. Tohru immediately brightened as she found her target also sitting under a shady tree, not far from them. She stopped to simple observe the girl, looking in concern as noticed the girl's state for herself.

It was definitely true, the girl did look depressed… and severely at that. Her skin was almost sickly pale, almost reminding Tohru of Akito, and her grey eyes had large dark bruises underneath them, making it look like she hadn't slept in weeks, and Tohru could immediately tell, the girl also looked very lonely.

'_You can do this, you can do this, you can do this!'_ Tohru chanted in her mind, now feeling a bit nervous to be even in the girl's presence. It was true, the girl was very pretty, beautiful, easily on par with any of the Sohma's.

'_Okay!' _Tohru thought with determination, slowly walking over to the girl who was slowly eating her lunch from a bento box, hoping that they could be friends.

* * *

Kagome leaned against the tree, sighing as she thought of her life. Just what was the point of even going on? It's not like she had anything left to live for…

She slowly and mechanically ate her lunch, taking small and slow bites so she wouldn't throw it back up. She knew that she had to start eating properly again, she had lost too much weight to be really healthy, her stomach protested immensely but she simply shoved the nausea away.

Some footsteps immediately caught her attention and Kagome immediately looked at the source of the noise out of the corner of her greyish eyes. She blinked, not expecting to see a nervous-looking girl standing a few metres away from her, a red flush of complete concentration on her cute face.

Kagome raised a brow, not turning her head to alert the girl that she actually knew that she was there. _'What does she want?' _Kagome thought, hoping the Kami that the girl didn't want to be friends or anything. Everyone who even came into contact with her usually suffered some horrible pain, and this innocent-looking girl didn't deserve that. Besides that, Kagome was getting used to the solitude and isolation, she could handle it.

Kagome tensed as the girl slowly started to walk closer and decided to do something about it before the girl could approach her. She stood up, pretending that she didn't even see the girl before walking away, almost feeling the girl's disappointment. Kagome almost felt sorry for a moment before reminding herself that it was simply better this way.

After all, she probably deserved this loneliness…

* * *

Tohru dejectedly walked back to her friends, slightly disappointed that she didn't react faster before the girl got up and left. "So how did it go? Did you talk to her?" Momiji asked excitedly, his excitement waning a bit as Tohru shook her head.

"No, Higurashi-kun walked away before I could even approach her." Tohru answered, sitting back down to her own lunch of onigiri.

"Don't worry, Tohru-kun. You'll have plenty of chances to talk to her." Uo said, trying to comfort the obviously disappointed Tohru. "We can try and catch her before school ends." She added, glaring at Kyo as he snorted, obviously not wanting to.

"Just leave the damn girl alone!" The cat practically snarled, not seeing what the big deal about the girl was. So what if the dam girl looked depressed? His and all the Sohmas' lives were much more pained and scarred than some mere girl's. _She _didn't have to live with the stupid curse.

"Kyo-kun!" Tohru gasped, slightly worried at his tempered outburst.

"I agree," Yuki surprisingly spoke up, actually agreeing with his cousin for once. "If Higurashi-san doesn't want anything to do with us, then we should just leave her alone." Yuki said, another girl didn't need to be dragged into the Sohma's personal business because Tohru wanted to befriend her. It just wouldn't end good for either the girl or the Sohmas'.

"B-but…!" Tohru stuttered, not knowing what to say or do. Now she wanted to befriend the girl more than ever but if Sohma-kun didn't want her too, she did owe them a lot…

Uo and Hana glared at Yuki, not liking how Yuki seemed to be ordering their precious Tohru around like that, no matter how subtle it was. "You don't have to listen to him, Tohru-kun. We can try again after school." Uo said, glaring over at Yuki and Kyo, just daring them to say otherwise. She was smug as they seemed to keep quiet at her glare, though it was pretty obvious that they wanted to object.

"Okay." Tohru said quietly, feeling a bit bad as Sohma-kun and Kyo-kun obviously didn't want her to try again, but she really wanted to, that girl just looked so lonely and she wanted to help.

The Sohmas and the others packed their lunches when the bell rang; singling it was time to go back to class. Tohru looked up, a slight determination brewing in her leaf green eyes.

She wanted to be that girl's friend and even if Kagome didn't want her to be, then she would at least try.

* * *

Kagome walked down the street, not bothering to go to the last class and just skipping it. She didn't feel so good and as long as she kept her grades up, Kaiwaia school didn't care how many absences that she had, not like her other school did.

She adjusted her blue skirt, slightly irritated as it seemed to be even shorter than her previous green school uniform skirt. Man, it seemed that the principle was also a pervert.

Kagome sighed, suddenly feeling sick. Maybe she should have just skipped over lunch, it was obviously not agreeing with her at all. "Better get home before I hurl it back up." Kagome muttered under her breath with irritation, the last thing she wanted to do was throw up in public.

A slight noise suddenly caught her attention and Kagome flipped over to the bushes, tensed because of her past and her instincts. She slowly parted the bushes, blinking her blue-grey eyes and taking a few steps back in vague shock.

Well, that she certainly wasn't expecting…

Two injured small animals lay behind the bushes; a few slash-like marks that looked like it was caused by a knife covered their bodies, both of them mewing in obvious pain, though what shocked Kagome the most was the type of animals they were.

It wasn't everyday that you see a tiger cub and a little sheep huddled together…


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Pairing: Still not sure yet (Though I have narrowed it down to either Akito (male), Yuki, or Hatori), Kyo/Tohru

* * *

'_Zoo escapees?' _Kagome first thought as she stared at the rather unusual animals. She raised a brow, kneeling down to the injured animals. She hesitantly and lightly touched the orange and black striped fur of the tiger cub, the feline twitching in obvious pain. There wasn't a zoo around for miles.

'_Well either way, I just can't leave them here,' _Kagome quickly thought, lightly and carefully grabbing the two, making sure that she didn't make their injuries any worse. Her arms soon became bloody, the crimson liquid dripping down off the animals and onto her hands. _'What the hell happened to them?' _She thought, frowning while her blue eyes flashed. She also noticed two pairs of clothing underneath them, slightly stained in blood.

'_What is this?' _Kagome thought, looking at the clothing weirdly. Just why was these clothing near (resembling a girl's and a boy's middle school uniform) animals? _'Whatever, I'll just grab them too, I guess.' _Kagome thought, sighing as she glanced at the animals' condition.

How could someone do this? And to two rather defenceless animals?

'_People are just disgusting.' _The vague thought crept across her tired mind and she didn't even bother to correct herself either. It was true; the human race was the cruellest on the planet, hurting others for their own pleasure.

Kagome smiled slightly as the shrine steps came into view about ten minutes later, having practically run the rest of the way home because the animals really did need to be treated right away. She ran up the shrine steps the fastest she ever have, opening the door and carefully putting the animals onto a small towel so she wouldn't get blood all over the place.

"Alright, I'll need bandages and disinfectant." Kagome muttered, rushing to the bathroom that held all of the supplies. She opened the medicine cabinet, cursing rather loudly as she noticed that nothing she needed was there. "Damn it!" She swore, now getting worried for the animals' condition. It would take her around twenty minutes to get to the nearest store and back. _'If I run, it'll take maybe fifteen.' _Kagome thought, quickly running out of the bathroom and shoving back on her school shoes, glancing at the tiger's and sheep's condition.

She was slightly glad to see that the wounds did seem to have stopped bleeding, their obviously better animal healing kicking in. "I'll be back in a sec." She muttered uselessly to herself as the animals were unconscious and wouldn't really be able to understand her anyway.

She quickly ran out the door and down the steps, heading towards the nearest convenience store that she knew carried what she needed.

* * *

'_What happened?' _The thought slowly registered over his mind, his brain finally waking up from his forced unconsciousness. Unfortunately, the first thing that registered was pain and a lot of it. _'Itai!!' _He finally opened his eyes, looking at the surroundings with a panic that could only be found in a cornered wild animal. He realized slightly after a few moments, after seeing that he didn't seem to be in any danger.

He could remember what had happened, how those high-school kids and ganged up on him and— "Kisa!!" Hiro shouted worriedly, wondering with panic what had happened to her. He had tried to defend both himself and Kisa from those high-school thugs, but even his martial arts training just weren't enough against the knives that the thugs had and used.

He tried getting up, almost immediately noticing that he was no longer in his human form but his cursed animal form, a little sheep. "Damn!" Hiro cursed, getting up to his feet wobbly, ignoring the shallow slashes on his legs. He looked around, noting with great relief that Kisa was lying right beside him, also injured and in her cursed form.

He looked her over with concern, immediately blaming himself for her condition. First, it was his fault that Kisa was injured by Akito (his fault because he had told Akito that he loved Kisa), then he couldn't even help her with the bullies at their school (and effectively silencing her for a while), and now this? He couldn't even protect her from some mere thugs?

He really hated himself even more in that moment.

He closed his dark eyes in slight pain when his wounds throbbed a bit, but he ignored it, more worried for Kisa then himself. She was still unconscious.

"Kisa? Kisa, wake up! Kisa?!" Hiro shouted as loud as he could in his sheep form, nudging her slightly with his nose. They would somehow have to drag themselves back to the Sohma estate, drag themselves to Hatori, who could heal them and maybe make this pain go away.

The tiger moved slightly, her tail twitching as she neared consciousness. "Kisa!?" Hiro asked again in concern, nudging her a bit harder. He moved back a little, wondering why they still seemed to be in their cursed animal forms. He didn't know how long they were in their animal forms but it just seemed to be too long already.

"What," Kisa suddenly mumbled, Hiro immediately hovering over her in concern. "happened?" She finished, wincing as she felt a lot of pain rush over her small body.

"Kisa!? Are you alright? Do you hurt?" Hiro asked in a blind panic, slapping himself mentally for his last question. Of course she hurt! What kind of question was that?

"Hiro-chan?" Kisa muttered, looking up with her amber-brown eyes, wondering why he was in his cursed form and blood all over his— "Hiro-chan! You're hurt!" Kisa suddenly said, trying to get up but failing as her weak legs gave out due to her own injuries. She finally noticed that she was in her tiger form…

"Don't worry about me." Hiro muttered, lying back down wearily. He knew that they had to walk back to the Sohma estate but he just so tired at the moment. Their wounds didn't seem to be bleeding anymore, so they didn't seem to be in a life-threatening situation just yet.

Kisa closed her eyes, feeling the pain but not saying a word. If Hiro wasn't scared, then she would try and not to be either. She looked around, her feline-enhanced vision catching everything perfectly… "Where are we?" Kisa asked, her tiger instincts kicking in as she started to lightly lick her wounds.

And for once, Hiro couldn't say anything, finally noticing that they were actually in a house.

* * *

"Got the bandages and the disinfectant." Kagome muttered, grabbing the items off the shelf quickly, wanting to get back to the injured animals before they could wake up. Despite being small, they were still (semi) wild animals and might wake up in a panic due to being in unfamiliar surroundings. She walked towards the counter, stopping for a second to watch as a very tall blond girl bump into an even taller male.

She watched in slight disbelief and humour as the blond immediately turned around to apologize, only for the man to bow and dropping all the snacks out of his arms in the process. The blond girl and Kagome could only watch in amusement as the chips seemed to have a domino effect, the bags all falling to the floor in an order. Kagome snapped out of her amusement as the blond immediately started to laugh loudly, covering her mouth to stifle the sound. "I can't believe it! There really _is _someone else like _her_!" The blond snickered while Kagome rushed to the front, needing to get back to the animals as soon as possible.

"Thanks." Kagome muttered, grabbing the bag as the clerk handed it to her, running out the store and now ignoring the tall blond girl and the man.

However, she did notice something a bit _unusual _in the air, something that was… familiar.

* * *

Both Kisa's and Hiro's ears immediately perked up as they picked up a noise with their animalistic hearing, tensing slightly. Their tensed positions did hurt but they ignored it for now, obviously someone was coming into the unfamiliar house that they were in.

The sudden transformation caught both Kisa and Hiro off guard, a light puff of coloured smoke covering their forms, clearing away to reveal their naked forms…

Exactly in the moment that Kagome walked in the room.

All of them could only stare at each other for one split second, before Kisa finally broke the moment, completely embarrassed as she tried to cover her body with a pillow.

"Ah, Kisa!" Hiro said, also embarrassed for two reasons. His cheeks burned as he looked away from the tora, also trying to cover himself up in front of the stranger. He was too embarrassed to even make a snarky remark to the girl.

"Please don't tell me you're robbers." Kagome sighed and said sarcastically, surprisingly calm for a situation such as this. In the moment that they had stared at each other, she had immediately noticed the same slash wounds on these two people that were on the tiger and sheep. It certainly didn't faze her that these two were possibly the little animals she had picked up. Even if they did feel completely _human_, she had seen too many strange things in her life to be even remotely surprised.

Hiro glared, though the effect was less than he wanted as his cheeks were still stained with the embarrassing red. He opened his mouth to say something sarcastic, despite the situation, but he was cut off before he could even speak.

"I suppose I should get you some clothing." Kagome said with little amusement, she was really too tired to deal with any of this right now. All she really wanted to do was go for a nap (though she really doubted that she would get some actual sleep).

"…!..." Hiro, again, opened his mouth to say something but stopped when the girl quickly walked out of the room, obviously intending to get them clothing. He said nothing, just making sure that he was looking away from Kisa's general direction to give her some privacy.

Kisa merely huddled into herself, wishing that Tohru-nee-chan was here.

"Here." Kagome said simply, tossing them over clothing. To the little boy, she tossed Souta's old and unused clothing and to the little girl, she tossed her old and unfitting clothing. She held back her sad sigh, her blue eyes turning greyer as she thought of her little brother.

Hiro and Kisa caught the clothing with their good reflexes, perplexed on why the girl was acting so calmly. They were sure they she was the one who picked them up in their animal form, so how could she act in the way that she was?

Shouldn't she be… _disgusted_?

Kagome smiled slightly, effectively making her look even more exhausted, if that was even possible. She looked away in the moments that they quickly shoved on the clothing.

Her blue-grey eyes looked on to the unusual eyes of the two Juunishi, almost demanding answers.

When she spoke, it certainly had a slightly dangerous undertone to it, causing shivers to run down their spines.

"Now, does anyone want to tell me why you turn into animals?"

* * *

Uo looked up at the long steps, smiling slightly as she thought of something. The conversation that she had with that 'Kureno' she had in convenience store had elevated her mood but this was just even better! She had noticed that 'Higurashi Kagome' in the store and followed her to her house, curious to see where she lived. Uo knew that Tohru was disappointed yet again when she realized that Kagome had just skipped the last class. She quickly grabbed her cell phone out of her pocket, dialling a number. She held the phone to her ear, grinning even wider as the person picked up.

"Tohru-kun?— You're with the Sohma's right now?— Well, just bring them along— I have a surprise for you— This is you chance to meet Higurashi-kun—"

Uo smiled as Tohru sounded excited over the cell phone, before looking up at the steps again.

"Yeah, just come over to Higure Shrine…"


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Pairing: still not sure (It's now between Hatori, Yuki, Akito, and Haru) forgot to add him last time

And I'm well aware of Akito being female, and despite the fact I am going to follow the manga, I will make Akito male if I do decide to pair him/her with Kagome

* * *

"Well, does anyone want to me why you turn into animals?" Kagome said, her tone was subtly dangerous. She crossed her arms, casually leaning against the wall as she stared at the nervous pre-teens. She almost smirked as the boy turned a light shade of red, opening his mouth to say _something_, but nothing simply came out.

As amusing as she found him being speechless, she wanted answers, and wanted them now. "Well!?" She demanded, knowing she was being a bit rude and mean, but didn't really care. It was probably her exhaustion causing her to snap on the smallest issues, she couldn't really help it either. It's not like she could sleep, no matter how much she wanted to.

Hiro was angry, his hands fisted and his teeth clenched. How the hell did this woman think she was? She couldn't just demand to know about their curse!! He wouldn't tell, knowing he would suffer from Akito's wrath if he ever did.

He shuddered, closing his eyes as he visualized a more horrific scene within his mind. What if Akito attacked Kisa for his mistake? He didn't know if he could handle such a thing, he was already traumatized from knowing and living with the knowledge that it was already _his _fault for when Kisa when been beaten before. He couldn't stand Akito, he was just a horrible person. His young mind was even further traumatized when he witnessed Akito pushing Rin out a window, and for no apparent reason.

No, there was no way in hell that he would ever tell this woman about the Sohma curse.

Kisa sat on the couch, her hands in her lap and shrinking back into herself a bit. Her timid amber-brown eyes looked to the floor, watching a multi-coloured, fat cat slowly amble into the room. She tried focusing on the cat, not able to meet the intensity of the woman's electric blue eyes. It looked and felt like she was actually seeing into her soul.

Kagome frowned, the shadows underneath her eyes darkening quite a bit. She sighed, losing some of her anger when she took in her deep breath. She knew better, she shouldn't be demanding such answers. It wasn't her place and right, but still, she wanted to know. She wanted and needed to know that there were supernatural things taking place in her own modern Era. She didn't know how long she could go without knowing...

In the back of her mind, she did know. She did know that there were demons roaming in her time. Well disguised, but still in existence. After all, if they weren't, then Souta would still be alive…

Kagome's eyes darkened into grey and her fists clenched unconsciously, until she drew blood. She didn't feel any pain when the blood dripped down her fingers. No, she was long past pain, she was so numb that she couldn't feel anything anymore, nothing that was _real_ anyways...

Kagome got up from her leaning position, noting with some amusement that the boy tensed noticeably. _'I see, they're not comfortable around me.' _She thought, observing the room. Of course they would be slightly afraid. After all, they were in a stranger's home, in a pretty isolated neighbourhood, and just showed their 'secret' to boot. Who wouldn't be uncomfortable?

She smiled lightly, trying to soften her face. "I know you probably aren't too thrilled in being here, so why don't we go to the nearby park? That way, you'll be surrounded by people, if you're nervous about being around me, that is." Kagome stated, her amusement climbing higher as the boy suddenly stood up.

"Who's says we're afraid of you?! Some scrawny girl like you couldn't do anything." Hiro snorted sarcastically, observing the woman with his sharp brown eyes. The woman looked like she could fall over with a mere touch, she looked that frail. He was sure he could take her if need be, even if his shallow stab wounds did stung a little.

Kagome only closed her eyes, not even bothering to respond as she moved closer, intending on wrapping their wounds in the bandages that she had just bought. "Just relax, would you?" She snapped with irritation, seeing the boy move away, giving a rather impressive snarl for a human, or a sheep, or whatever the hell he was.

"Hiro-chan, I don't think she wants to hurt us." Kisa said quietly, barely above a whisper. The lady had helped them so far, hadn't she? She didn't, in any way, warrant Hiro's temper. She didn't want the lady to suffer through Hiro's temper like Tohru-nee-chan did.

"But, Kisa!!" Hiro immediately swerved to face Kisa, a surprised expression on his boyish face. He was speechless, was Kisa actually defending this woman? Ever after she had demanded to know about their curse?! His eye brows furrowed, just noticing her reaction. Why wasn't she scared?! Or even disgusted?! That reaction just wasn't… normal.

Nor did it even seem… _human_.

'_Maybe she's apart of the Juunishi.' _Hiro thought, but then immediately shot it down. She couldn't be, the Zodiac years were all taken and she didn't live in the Sohma Estate like the majority of the cursed Sohmas'. _'So then, what is she? And why didn't she react at all?' _

He thought, suddenly growing irritated with the woman and her strange reaction.

They were _monsters_, and she acted like it was _okay_. He hated that, and suddenly hated the woman.

"There, all done." The woman suddenly smiled, moving away from him. Hiro blinked, and then glared. She had somehow disinfected and bandaged his wounds while he was thinking, and he didn't even notice, not even with his martial arts training or his more… animal instincts.

He moved away from her, tensing as she kneeled in front of Kisa with a small smile on her pretty face. Hiro was about to say something, but stopped short when he noticed that Kisa was shyly smiling back at her, a pretty little blush on her cute face.

"So what is your name?" Kagome asked kindly, trying to distract the pre-teen while she rubbed the disinfectant over the light wounds. The question seemed to work as the girl stopped wincing, opening her beautiful amber-brown eyes. It was a pretty unusual colour… for a human at least.

"Sohma Kisa." Kisa said quietly, shyly hiding her face behind her long golden-coloured bangs. She glanced quickly over at Hiro, pointing in his direction. She knew he would never introduce himself, so she would do it for him. "And that's Sohma Hiro."

Kagome smiled; at least she knew their names now. "Are you two related?" She asked curiously, wrapping the medical bandage around the girl's arm.

Kisa nodded enthusiastically, smiling a bit wider as her light blush grew. She felt… fuzzy around this lady. It was almost even better when she was around Tohru-nee-chan. "What's your name?" Kisa asked curiously, yet timidly.

"Higurashi Kagome." Kagome simply said, standing back a bit to admire her work. The bandages would due for now.

"Ohh!" Kisa gasped slightly and even Hiro reacted. They both recognized the surname easily. The Higure Shrine was easily the most prestigious in the district, and they had both went to at least one of the festivals that the Higure Shrine threw yearly. They were very popular and successful, only Kisa never remembered seeing this woman there ever.

She remembered an old man slapping paper on everyone's foreheads, shouting things about 'Demons' and 'Youkai.' It almost scared her when the old man slapped one on her, thinking that he could possibly recognize that she had a curse on her, but Hiro had dismissed that fear when he said that the old man was doing it to everyone.

"Well, do you want to leave for the park now?" Kagome asked, her brow raised. She immediately noticed how they seemed to react to her surname, wondering if they even heard of it. It wouldn't surprise her if they did; her family name was pretty famous, if only for the shrine that had been in her family for generations.

"Yes." Hiro growled, wanting to get away from the woman as fast as they could. He didn't like how Kisa seemed to react positively to her, it just wasn't… right. It was bad enough that Kisa liked that dimwitted Tohru girl.

Kagome merely closed her eyes, and resisted the urge to sigh. "Don't forget that you still owe me an explanation." She said, walking towards the front door, not noticing as Hiro and Kisa freeze up. She knew it wasn't any of her business, but she would make it her business. They had transformed in front of her, the least they could do was tell her.

Hiro and Kisa looked towards each other, not knowing what to do. They had to escape before she demanded answers from them, even if Kisa was really starting to like her. But she knew better, the Sohma secret had to be kept safe. But Tohru knew the secret, and she wasn't a Sohma, so why couldn't this lady know too?

"Aren't you two coming? Kisa-chan? Hiro-_chan_?" Kagome asked, the 'chan' on Hiro's part a bit mockingly. She could tell the boy didn't like her in the least, but would have fun ruffling his fur up anyway. She slipped on her brown school shoes, not have changed out of her new blue school uniform yet.

"Okay." Kisa said, getting up quickly and almost rushing to the woman's side. The tiger smiled shyly up at Kagome, slipping on her own school shoes that Kagome had obviously picked up for her. She liked the fuzzy feeling that she felt around the woman.

Hiro merely scowled, but slowly made his way over to them. He roughly kicked on his boots, crossing his arms angrily over his chest and fuming his silent temper tantrum.

"So then, let's go." Kagome said, leading them out and locking the door behind her. She followed at a slower pace as they went slowly down the shrine steps, obviously careful not the make their small wounds any worse. She watched them as she climbed down behind them, narrowing her eyes as she spotted something.

It was… strange. It was like something was clinging to their very souls, some kind of weird energy that didn't feel entirely… demon. It didn't feel human either, so she could only come up with one thought.

'_Hanyou?'_

_

* * *

_

Uo leaned against the wall, tapping her foot against the ground as she waited for Tohru-kun, Hana-chan, and the Sohma boys to show up. She sighed, wondering what was taking so long.

She brushed a long blond bang from her eyes, looking around the neighbourhood with curiosity. She could vaguely recall this place, and the Higure Shrine did ring some bells in her mind. Uo sighed when he remembered where she had seen this place. The first time was back when she was in a gang.

They had come when there was a festival going on, totally wrecking the entire place up, and scaring all the festival-goers out of their minds. She also remembered being arrested for that, none of the gang members knowing that the one of the male occupants of the shrine was actually a police officer. She only remembered that because the police officer died like a week later.

The second time she had seen this shrine was when Kyoko-san had brought them all here to celebrate their middle-school graduation. That time was clearer in her mind.

"Oi, Tohru-kun! It took you a while." Uo greeted, getting up from her leaning position to smile at her friends. She stretched a bit, guessing it had been about half-an-hour since she actually called Tohru.

"I'm sorry, Uo-chan!!" Tohru said apologetically, repeatedly bowing over to show that she was extremely sorry, only to stop when Kyo roughly stopped her.

"Stop that! It's annoying!" Kyo growled, not seeing what the big deal was. It's not like they were actually late for anything, there was simply nothing to be sorry for in the first place.

"Ahh, I'm sorry, Kyo-kun!!" Tohru said quickly, basically repeating the whole bowing thing over again.

Kyo almost sighed, holding back his smile at her actions.

"Stupid Cat." Yuki merely muttered, not at all fazed as Kyo suddenly got up all into his face. His bored violent eyes strayed from Kyo's enraged crimson ones, not at all listening when Kyo started to almost literally spit and hiss in rage like the stupid cat he actually was. No, he was more interested in the shrine that was just around the corner.

"The electric signals here are very chaotic." Hana's quiet voice broke through the noise, everyone stopping to stare at her for a brief moment, before looking beyond the wall that would lead them to the shrine steps.

'_Is the shrine haunted?' _Tohru thought nervously, taking Hana-chan's words very seriously. There was no doubt in her mind that Hana did have a sixth sense about these kind of things. _'But I've been here before.' _She reassured herself, remembering that she was excited earlier when Uo had told her over the phone that Kagome-san actually lived at Higure Shrine. She was excited because she could remember coming here every year with her mother because of the festivals the shrine threw.

She just didn't actually think that Kagome-san was actually a Higurashi that lived here. Then again, Higurashi did seem to be a very uncommon family name, so now it made perfect sense.

"Well, aren't we going up there or not?" Kyo asked with irritation, shoving his hands into the pockets of his baggy cargo pants. It's not like he actually wanted to come, that annoying and perverted dog had basically manipulated him into going. How Shigure did it, he would never know.

"Yes, let's go before it gets too late." Yuki, surprisingly, agreed with his cousin for the second time that day. As they rounded the corner, he didn't even feel the cold wind on his bare arms, wearing a sleeveless Chinese shirt with black pants.

No, there was something else as he stared at the numerous shrine steps. His violet eyes narrowing as the wind ruffled his sleek grey hair.

"Isn't this exciting?!" Tohru asked with anticipation. She would finally meet with the owners of the shrine. She smiled widely as they all began their long trek up the stairs.

None of them noticed the three figures already walking away from the steps.

* * *

Kagome led the two cousins to the nearest park, one that sold crepes. If it worked, maybe she would use those to try and trick the two into telling her their secret.

Kisa and Hiro glanced around, remembering this park because Tohru had taken them both here not long ago and bought them both crepes, though Hiro had actually paid for them all.

"Do you want me to buy you one?" Kagome asked kindly, pointing in the direction of one of the stands. She smiled amusedly as Hiro immediately scowled the moment she had started to speak. It was pretty obvious that he despised her. Oh well; most of her closest friends had all ended up that way. Inuyasha, Shippou, Miroku, Sango, Kouga, and Sesshoumaru had all tried to kill/harm/hurt/or kidnap her in the beginning.

Her eyes darkened even more, the grey storm growing even stronger.

"Yes, please." Kisa said, kicking her foot along the ground with embarrassment. Hiro said nothing, only crossing his arms while frowning even more, if that were even possible.

And again, Kagome's amusement shot up once again. "Alright—" She was suddenly cut off, and turned to see who had interrupted her. She blinked her grey eyes, vaguely recalling seeing him in her new class.

"Kisa? Hiro? What are you doing? Harii-nii is looking for you two."


End file.
